HBA-CMT H.B. 3591 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3591
By: Hunter
State, Federal & International Relations
7/10/2001
Enrolled



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

An academic statewide resource sharing project was first funded in Fiscal
Year 1994 under the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.  The 53
publicly supported four-year academic and medical libraries were original
TexShare members.  During the 75th Legislature, legislation was passed that
expanded TexShare membership to independent academic institutions and
community colleges, and established TexShare as a program of the Texas
State Library and Archives Commission.  During the 76th Legislature,
legislation was passed which brought public libraries into TexShare, and in
September 1999, the State Library assumed full administrative
responsibility for TexShare.  Prior to the 77th Legislature, TexShare was
managing the transition from a resource sharing program focused on academic
institutions to one that fostered resource sharing among all academic and
public libraries.  House Bill 3591 expands membership in TexShare to
include nonprofit libraries that provide extensive library services and
collections in the fields of clinical medicine and the history of medicine. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 3591 amends the Government and Utilities codes relating to the
TexShare consortium.  The bill includes libraries of nonprofit corporations
in the fields of clinical medicine and the history of medicine as entities
for which the TexShare resource-sharing consortium is maintained by the
Texas State Libraries and Archives Commission.  The bill requires an
electing company, on customer request, to provide private network services
to a library and a project eligible to have been funded by the
telecommunications infrastructure fund as of January 1, 2001. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.